I noticed that the community care a bunch about licensing, and since I moved to Linux I have been paying attention to that a lot, for both games I play and software I use.
So I am making a list of tools I use for my campaigns, in person or online, that still work on Linux, or that I found as an alternative to what I used before.
If you are a forever GM you probably have a licence for FoundryVTT, or are used to other online alternatives, or use those editable PDFs. There are plenty of tools out there for more permissive systems. Like my favourite https://compcon.app/#/ for Lancer.
But I think, on the top of my list, for playing and GMming D&D / Pathfinder PCGen is still king. It might also be a sign that I am old as the tool has been around for a long while.
It works the same on Linux as it works on MacOS or WindowsOS. As long as you have java, you just need to extract the release from github (https://github.com/PCGen/pcgen) and run the '.sh' (or .exe). (make sure you got a file like this pcgen-6.08.00RC10.zip that it comes ready to use, as there is a file called Source Code.tar.gz and you will need to take more steps for it to be usable.
I like that it is straightforward to create a char, PCGen helps you at every step. From this screenshot from the website, you can see there is a checklist "Things to be Done", that reminds you of the things you need to do to a given character.
You can use to manage every aspect of your player, and it gives you options to export if you would rather not use it for playing.
More screenshots here (http://pcgen.org/benefits/screenshots/). The website is old, so it does not have https.
There are also some features for GMing, but I never used, I usually print or use a digital file like PDF or HTML.
http://pcgen.org/benefits/gmgen/
Now, the negatives.
Licensing is a problem, it does not ship with less permissive systems. So you will have to add them yourself.
It comes with a bunch of stuff for Pathfinder, but for D&D you will need to fend for yourself on how to find/install PCGen D&D Data Set
Last, the Data Set file format, and the data format. It is daunting to look at, and a bit tricky to work it. It is just some sort of text file, but it depends on a lot of proper data format and indentation. And as the file grows, it becomes hard to manage. It takes some time to get used to it, if you want to create homebrew classes, items, etc...
Here is the wiki - http://159.203.101.162/w/index.php/Data_LST_Standards
It is nice that someone compiled a bunch of videos helping people do that http://pcgen.org/get-help/videos/
I have nothing to do with the development of the tool, I just use it and wanted to share and read about other people experience, suggestions, workflow, etc...
Yeah I can't believe this is still around. It was a beast to work with like a decade ago, and it kinda looks exactly the same. Surely there are some smooth phone or web apps that do this better now.
For other RPG systems with more permissive licensing, you can find better stuff (as others pointed out in this post) and newer stuff are always popping up.
I do like FoundryVTT, but I have to host it every time I want to play. Tabletop Simulator also offers a bunch of mods.
For getting papers ready and organized during a D&D campaign, I find PCGen difficult to beat. I think it is my old age, and my reluctance in rebuying books from D&D Beyond.
I use a vtt called Alchemy, it requires a ton of work to setup but it looks good and puts roll20 to shame.
It looks great! It was a bit easier to "install" than FoundryVTT, and the free version looks very complete and modern, with voice chat and all the bells and whistles. I will explore it with more time during the weekend. I am curious to check how people connect to the game, and to see how this marketplace works.
Thank you so much for the recommendation.
Of course! It isn't perfect, still missing what I would call core features (Object tokens, drawing tools and AOE's) but it's otherwise a fantastic place to play.
For dnd, as bs as it is, beyond is a great app if you have the cash to throw around for all the books.
As far as pathfinder goes, idk I haven't played in years.
Beyond is what pushed me over the edge to fully move to Pathfinder. Even with owning books in it I still did not have access to everything I needed and still had to buy more to be able to play a character.
Oh its super scummy. But as an app (when you have access to all or most of the books) its quite nice.
I dm as a gig and do not use beyond, but a few of my players do for leveling purposes. Personally do everything by hand actually, and input that info into my vtt.
If you are looking at pathfinder 2e, look at https://pathbuilder2e.com/. It works great IMO.
pathbuilder and wanders guide.